NFL Twitter was calling for a rule change after the refs on Monday Night Football between the Eagles and Commanders missed a blatant facemask penalty.
Replay exists in the NFL to get calls right. It doesn’t always do that for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s because of the limits of camera angles or the complexities of rules interpretations.
But sometimes it’s because of something even more infuriating: Insufficient rules.
We’re talking about how replay isn’t empowered to fix blatant rule violations. It was a problem in the NFC Championship Game between the Saints and Rams when Nickell Robey-Coleman’s obvious pass interference went unpunished.
On Monday, it was a problem for the Eagles against the Commanders after Dallas Goedert fumbled while being absolutely mauled by the facemask.
Refs screwed the Eagles by missing a blatant facemask
Replay got to look at the play for the fumble aspect and rule it was a turnover. But everyone could also see the blatant facemask foul that arguably led to the fumble in the first place. And there was nothing anyone could do about it.
The Eagles, who trailed the Commanders late, lost a key possession on a play that should have given them 15 yards.
It shouldn’t be this hard to get simple calls like that right. The NFL needs to empower referees to respond to things everyone can see like a facemask. Obviously, there are more difficult fouls to adjudicate via replay but facemask isn’t one of them. It sucks to see a game potentially decided by something like that.
Philadelphia went on to lose to Washington. It was their first loss of the season.
Sure, the Eagles had other chances to go out there and win the game. They can’t blame it all on that turnover but the fumble and the missed call certainly played a role in how things played out. It shouldn’t have.